"Understandably, national governments are eager to work for religious peace and stability in their countries. We can only regret that, all too often and with the best of intentions, they give such disputes an ever worse edge," pointed out the Patriarch.
"Absolutely unacceptable!" he said of a recent reception by the Constantinopolitan Patriarch of Ukrainian and Macedonian government delegations. The secular delegates had come to discuss with him chances to take under the Constantinopolitan aegis breakaway groups of the Moscow and Serbian Patriarchates. "Such things are not to put up with in contacts between Orthodox Churches," Patriarch Alexis angrily remarked.
He is also alarmed by developments in the Jerusalem Church. However, the Russian Orthodox Church makes it a point not to interfere in the situation. "We never meddle in other Local Churches' affairs. Whatever is on in the Holy Land mainly concerns hierarchs of the Jerusalem Patriarchate. I suppose they realize that resolute steps are necessary to reinstate their flock's trust and confidence in them," said the Patriarch.
